Six editions of Windows 7: better than Vista, still too many

Microsoft has unveiled the lineup of editions of Windows 7. There will be six …

After a ton of guesswork and rumors flying around, Microsoft has finally confirmed what much of the evidence was pointing to: there will indeed be six editions of Windows 7, just like there were for Windows XP and Windows Vista. Customers will be able to choose from Windows 7 Starter Edition, Windows 7 Home Basic Edition, Windows 7 Home Premium Edition, Windows 7 Professional Edition, Windows 7 Ultimate Edition, and Windows 7 Enterprise Edition. The news comes hot on the heels of the Windows 7 Ecosystem Readiness Program announced yesterday.

All editions will be available in worldwide markets except for Home Basic, which will be offered in emerging markets. Starter will be also available worldwide but only via OEMs.

"We know emerging markets have unique needs and we will offer Windows 7 Home Basic, only in emerging markets, for customers looking for an entry-point Windows experience on a full-size value PC," Mike Ybarra, General Manager for Windows said. "We’ll also continue to offer Windows Starter edition, which will only be offered pre-installed by an OEM. Windows Starter edition will now be available worldwide. This edition is available only in the OEM channel on new PCs limited to specific types of hardware."

Most users will only use Home Premium, Professional, and Ultimate, which is why Microsoft is expected to only offer upgrade paths for these three.

Here is how the different versions differ from each other:

Windows 7 Starter (worldwide via OEM only): up to three concurrent applications, ability to join a Home Group, improved taskbar and JumpLists

Windows 7 Professional (worldwide): ability to join a managed network with Domain Join, data protection with advanced network backup and Encrypting File System, and print to the right printer at home or work with Location Aware Printing

Windows 7 Ultimate (worldwide): BitLocker data protection on internal and external drives, DirectAccess for seamless connectivity to corporate networks based on Windows Server 2008 R2, BranchCache support when on networks based on Windows Server 2008 R2, and lock unauthorized software from running with AppLocker

We weren't crazy about the proliferation of Vista versions, so we have mixed feelings this time around. The Vista version differentiation is essentially a cash grab, and the same is true with Windows 7. We had hoped that with the new version, Microsoft might be a little less egregiously money-grabbing.

That said, the Windows 7 line-up does address some of the problems with the Vista line-up. Vista's delineation between versions simply didn't make a lot of sense. It assumed computers were used far more narrowly than is actually the case, and put the consumer in the unfortunate position of having to choose—"Do I go for remote desktop and shadow copies, or do I go for Media Center?"—or buy the considerably more expensive Ultimate edition.

The Windows 7 line-up fixes that major problem; by making pricier versions true supersets of cheaper versions, the decision making is a lot simpler. No longer is it necessary to make a choice between unrelated features. The reinstatement of the Professional branding (instead of Vista's Business brand) also provides a useful join-up with the familiar XP branding.

The relegation of Home Basic to emerging markets should also mean that—in first world markets, at least—the proliferation of versions isn't so immediately apparent. In conjunction with the cleaner segmentation, the choice betwen Home Premium, Professional, and Ultimate is now much clearer. Whether consumers were ever really confused by the different Vista versions is hard to say, but either way the problem should be greatly reduced in Windows 7.

On the other hand, the decision to make the crippled Starter edition available worldwide is quite extraordinary; the appeal even in emerging markets is unclear, and since even netbooks are more than up to the challenge of running Home Premium, the purpose of this is completely unclear. Many commentators have suggested that there should be a dedicated netbook edition, but even if one buys into that idea (we don't), Starter edition ain't it.

The new SKUs are certainly an improvement over the Vista ones, and for that we should be grateful. It is gratifying that Microsoft has listened to the criticism of Vista's versions and taken at least some of it on board. It's still disappointing that the company still feels the need to so openly maximize its revenue; this is not behavior that breeds goodwill. A reversion to the XP launch line-up of Home and Professional would be far more palatable. Windows 7's version line-up is certainly a step forward—but what we were really hoping for was an even bigger step backward.

Well since the Home Basic seems to be emerging-market only and the Starter Edition to be OEM only, this left us with only 3 editions to choose which is for us occidental geeks a de facto simplification.

I don't know how an upgrade path works (do I have to install it as an upgrade or can I just have the discount by giving my previous key and install it on a fresh new and empty partition?) but I think I'll take the Business or Ultimate Edition as an upgrade my Vista Business. Well, since I don't have much use for the Ultimate Edition, it'll probably be the Business Edition anyway.

I think "Ultimate" is as much of a ruined brand as "Vista," and Microsoft would've been much wiser to get rid of the "Ultimate" name entirely.

We only need 2 mainstream editions. "Home Premium" could've easily been just "Home." Simplicity is key. "Professional" could've included all the features of the Ultimate edition, but keeping the "Professional" name.

If those are really the only differences, then it doesn't look like there is a reason for a home user to get anything more than Home Premium. I can't really believe those are the only differences though. What's the source for this, is there a Microsoft site where they lay it all out?

Does Microsoft not understand that this nonsense confused the hell out of most people? Then they come to me asking me what the difference is or complaining that their version doesn't have what they need. Thank you MS, you keep making more work for me, and therefore help keep me in a job.

They're not money grabbing with different editions, they're enabling people who don't need as many features to afford it. They're doing people a favor with different editions.

They could get away with charging ultimate prices for every edition of Windows sold.

What fairy tale land are you living in? Vista Ultimate is $240 retail, that costs more then some netbooks. MS just charges too much, there should be like a $140 Home edition and $180 Pro or something like it.

Starter edition is the biggest money grabber ever. Buying a computer from Dell and want to run more then 3 apps at once? Better pay $150 for the Home Premium upgrade.

Originally posted by smartalco:What fairy tale land are you living in? Vista Ultimate is $240 retail, that costs more then some netbooks. MS just charges too much, there should be like a $140 Home edition and $180 Pro or something like it.

Starter edition is the biggest money grabber ever. Buying a computer from Dell and want to run more then 3 apps at once? Better pay $150 for the Home Premium upgrade.

What fairy tale land do YOU live in where Windows isn't practically required to even call it a computer?

I never found the Vista versions confusing. The message was clear: "You want a functional system? Pay us top dollar. (Unless you live in a market where we have to give it to you for $3 or you'll find it for less.")

That ridiculous Starter version (Start what, exactly?) is just a way for OEMs to pretend they've loaded Windows so they can still get paid off by the crapware companies.

As the story says, grabbing for money does not breed good will. Especially not when you do it with the vigor of an armed robber.

The changes to the lineup are a lot nicer, and closer to the Home/Pro delineation was made in XP. They really need to include Shadow Copy support on Home Premium. If they could pair it up with a easy to use UI, they would have a much more compelling product for home users.

This is great. When I'm talking to people who are thinking about switching from a PC to a Mac, one of the points I often make is that there's one OS on the Mac, which is on everything from the Mac Mini to a Mac Pro. That frequently gets comments about how annoying Vista is in that regard. Glad I won't have to drop that point when Windows 7 comes!

So, will Previous Versions and Remote Desktop be in Home Premium now, or will it still be only in Professional and higher?

Since Home Basic is essentially out of the picture for most of us now, the only oddity is making Starter edition available worldwide. I suspect Starter will only be bundled on very low-end netbooks, I can't imagine any OEM wanting to push that crap on any full computer. Otherwise, it's a pretty simple Home Premium > Professional > Ultimate line-up where the vast majority will use Home Premium.

Six versions, probably up to $400 retail prices, won't run on all hardware.

Vista runs $90 for an upgrade to Home Premium(from previous OS's) to $180 for an upgrade to Ultimate. OS X sits at the midpoint of those two. For a home user its cheaper to go with Windows, for someone who needs the features of Ultimate its more expensive(although IMO you get a lot more, but that may be a matter of opinion). Either way, its in the same price range, and arguably cheaper for most users.

Ugh, "starter" is worldwide, so I can see it going on Netbooks so they can advertise a lower price and then surprise the user into paying only $30 more for a real copy of Windows. This is a horrible mistake on MS's part, I can already see the lawsuit - someone sues Dell and MS because the user didn't know about the three program limit.

Then there is that Ultimate wont be sold. It'll be an online upgrade only, though the software to enable Ultimate will be on the hard drive or disc that you buy (per PCMag).

MS has done a lot on the face of it to reduce version confusion. If they only sell 2 versions to customers (Starter, Home Premium) its better than 3 (HB, HP, Ultimate), but its still a bad idea to sell Starter in developed countries.